All That I Have
by MissSherlockHieiHolmes
Summary: I wanted to do the Battle of Hogwarts from Draco's POV so that's exactly what I did and this is what I think should have happened XD


bAll That I Have

Draco's POV/b

"Draco. Draco, come."

Voldemort was only meters in front of me as I stood on the front steps leading up to the gate of the school I had made a home for six years. A sea of me peers and fellow students stood around me, half of them staring at Voldemort (for obvious reasons, he was the Dark Lord, here to take over) and the other half? Staring at me.

I glanced around without really moving my head, struggling to swallow the lump in my throat. Many of the students looking at me wore judgmental looks and it was like I could hear their thoughts, like I was in was intertwined in a web of a million critical thoughts. Most of them were like "I can't believe he's so pathetic" and "yeah, you're the scum of the Earth, so just crawl back to Voldemort". However there was an occasional face that wasn't so condescending, Hermione being one of them. I would have always expected her to condemn me. There were a few faces that looked sorry for me or, maybe, were encouraging me to stay, to fight…

I was frozen to the spot. I felt like even if I tried to pick up my feet and try to move forward, I wouldn't be able to move towards or away from my parents and I was stuck. Half of me wanted to stop being a coward, to stand and to fight with the rest of my school. The other half of me wanted to run to my parents and just leave. Voldemort wouldn't worry about my family and me if he was battling with Harry and I wanted to just run away. I wanted to go to my mother and walk away with the only woman who would put my life before her own.

She was the one person who would do absolutely anything for me and if I stayed? If I fought? I would hurt her so badly but if I got hurt, or worse, killed? That would break her heart. She put everything out on the line for me, to keep me safe and alive through this horrible war and if I didn't go to her now, it would be like I was throwing everything she'd ever done for me away. How could I do that to her?

But how could I live the rest of my life running away? Being a failure? Being a traitor to the Wizarding World? How was I supposed to live with that?

"iDraco/i," my father repeated, rather harshly. He wasn't very pleased that I hadn't gone to him obediently already, and his tone clearly showed that. For once, I didn't flinch. For once, I could actually recognize that when he spoke to me, it kind of sounded like he was speaking to a dog or a house elf rather than his son. When I thought about all the time I'd spent with my father, I realized that he'd never really spoken to me like I was a person worth respecting, but a dog that was meant to obey him and nothing more than that.

I wasn't his plaything, but I'd acted like it for years. I'd done everything he told me to do, from stupid, pointless things, to things that ruined my life and any sort of future I had, like becoming a Death Eater. He treated me like a domestic animal because I acted like one and if I went with him now, I would never be anything but his shadow. Maybe I needed to realize that I was never going to make my father proud and I was never going to be anything but his shadow to him. I needed to stop living for my father and start living for myself.

That still left me in a bit of a slump, though. I wasn't really sure if I could break my mother's heart by throwing away everything she had done for me. She was the one person in my life who actually loved me. She was the only person in my life that I actually loved. Well… there was one other person, but I wasn't really sure if that was love or just some sort of romantic fantasy that my brain had displayed before me because I was longing for someone else. My life had been a rather lonely one, despite what anyone believed. I had money and a big house, but I was alone in it.

At the same time, I didn't want to keep living for everyone else. I wanted to do what Draco Malfoy wanted, but I wasn't entirely sure what that all entitled because I'd been living in someone else's shadow for so long. Did I want to run away? Or did I want to stay and fight? Did I want to be safe or did I want to do what, in my heart, I knew was the right thing.

"iDraco, come,/i" my father hissed one more time before I finally stopped looking around. I saw my father first and then I saw Voldemort, staring intently at me, wand at his side. My vision seemed to clear and for the first time since I'd received my Dark Mark, I saw nothing but hatred for the Dark Lord. There was no fear and there was no false-loyalty, there was only hatred. That hatred migrated from Voldemort to my father. I would never be able to truly hate him, but I hated everything he had done to me.

"No," I said finally, gripping my mother's wand tightly in my hand, (it truly was amazing that I was even able to hold onto it after the Room of Requirement incident). Somehow I managed to sound more confident in myself then I actually felt, because all I felt like was that I was going to fall to my knees and throw up, but I stood straight.

"What?" Lucius asked, staring at me with wide, shocked eyes. It probably was a huge shock to him for me to refuse him. I inever/i disobeyed my father, but that was over now. "What did you say?" he repeated, like he could not believe what he was hearing.

"I said no." My mother looked mortified and my father looked like, if he were close enough, he would have slapped me across the face just for refusing him. Now I was kind of thankful that Voldemort had taken his wand. Merlin only knew what kind of curses he would throw at me in this moment. "Leave without me if you're going to run away. I'm staying right here." I was struggling just to keep a quiver or whimper from entering my voice and the skin around my Dark Mark kind of burned. I wanted nothing more than to be rid of the horrid mark. I'd find a way to get it off of me someday, but it was the least of my worries at this particular moment. Nothing mattered but this battle, to determine if Voldemort really would take over or if he could be stopped. It was time to stop running, to stop hiding.

But with Harry… dead… in Hagrid's arms and the rest of the students kind of lost without him, I wasn't really sure how smart my decision was. There was a very large possibility that I would die today… and if I did die? Would it be worth dying for to fight the man who ruined my life? In the back of my mind, I knew the answer was yes, of course this was worth dying for, but I was scared. I felt sick and, when my father started to step forward, as if he could for me to go, I finally moved.

Taking a few steps back, I raised my arm to him, pointing my mother's wand straight at him. Before, I would have never dreamed of threatening my own father with magic, but now I felt it was necessary to show him that he didn't own me anymore and that I was going to make my own decisions from now on. I didn't regret it.

"I'm not going with you," I said clearly. "I'm staying right here. Whatever happens here is meant to happen and I am not going to run from it. I won't spend the rest of my life like this," I hissed, ripping my right sleeve up to show the ugly Dark Mark that was inked magically into my flesh.

I glanced at my mother long enough to see her expression change from horror to understanding and something that resembled pride in my decisions. It was something I didn't see to often, but my mother never wanted this life for me. She never wanted me to become a Death Eater. She never even wanted it for herself. Now that I was standing up for myself, she was proud. My father did not share her opinions, but I was beginning to realize I needed to stop caring about what my father thought.

Lucius seemed like he was still intent on coming to get me, that is, until Bellatrix stepped forward. "Well, I'll just have to deal with you the way we deal with traitors, won't I? Draco?" she asked, almost cooing at me, like a mother or an aunt would do for a baby. She always treated me like a child because I was her nephew and she felt like she had power over me. To be honest, she did, but not anymore. "I thought you learned your lesson the ilast/i time you strayed."

There had been one time, several months ago, when my mother told me to run. There was a huge gathering of all of the Death Eaters and my parents didn't take me. My mother claimed I was seriously sick and couldn't go. When I was sure I was the only one left on Malfoy manner, I ran. The second I stepped foot off of the property, Bellatrix was there, stopping me from going anywhere. She hauled me back to the mansion, threw me down onto the floor and carved the word "traitor" into my lower back, just like when she carved "mudblood" into Hermione's arm.

The mention of that day made my back burn, but I wasn't even going to let that scare me into running, not this time. "I suppose it just didn't sink in, Auntie," I replied, rather sarcastically. I might have been jumping ship on the Death Eaters, but I was still Draco Malfoy. I had a certain sarcastic quota to maintain and for all I knew, today was going to be my last day on this Earth.

Bellatrix raised her wand but I quickly became aware that I wasn't standing alone anymore. Hermione Granger came to my right side and Neville Longbottom came to my left, both with their wands raised in the same defensive pose my own was still placed in.

"Oh, how rich, a mudblood and a pathetic excuse for a wizard are going to die with you," Bellatrix barked, laughing like the crazy woman she was, but before anyone even had time to utter a spell, Harry Potter came up, front and center. Normally this wouldn't have been enough of a distraction to just stop in the middle of a fight, but since Harry had just been lying dead in the half-giant's arms a minute ago, we were all stunned into a frozen state of shock and awe.

"Harry?" Ronald Weasley roared from what I would have guessed to only be a few feet behind me. I was sure he followed his girlfriend over towards me, but the fact that he was there at all was rather strange. I'd never been anything but cruel to him and his friends… I didn't deserve their support.

The moment my eyes fell on Harry, still alive, my heart stopped for a moment. Harry had saved my life more than once and when I thought he was dead, I truly couldn't believe it. I felt guilty for not returning the favor, for not being able to keep him away from Death's clutches.

I didn't have time to linger much on the fact that Harry was still alive and Harry didn't have time to reply to Ronald. None of us really seemed to understand what was going on, but suddenly, there was a war going on around us once again. Students, professors and Death Eaters all around went from standing in a sort of dramatic stare down to a wild frenzy of curses and counter-curses flying through the air.

I wanted to see if Harry was going to battle Voldemort and if he was going to be all right, but really, I couldn't focus on anything but the Death Eaters that were attacking me and people around me. There was no Harry, no Voldemort and no Bellatrix. Even my parents became nothing but a raging sea of people around me and there was nothing I could but fight. If I looked away, for even just a moment, I would have been slaughtered.

Some of the Death Eaters seemed rather reluctant to fight me though. They seemed like they weren't sure if I was on their side or not and they were confused. I didn't hesitate in disarming them. Their confusion and reluctance to attack me was only an advantage and it even allowed me to help other students and professors around me.

Occasionally I did see a student fall instead of a Death Eater and each time hit harder than the last. Why them and not me? Why not all of us? It wasn't fair, but if there was one thing I had learned in my life, it was that life wasn't fair, it never was and it never would be.

"iCrucio!/i" someone shouted. I recognized the voice as a Death Eater, but I couldn't put a name or a face to it. I heard someone else shout "Draco! Look out!" but it was all just smashed together as the curse hit me and I literally curled in on myself, dropping to my knees as agony filled every one of my senses. The noise around me became so unbearable that my ears felt like they were bleeding. The sweat that had come from my lips and drenched my tongue felt like a thousand miniature fires burning through my taste buds. Opening my eyes and seeing a huge swarm of people was completely smeared in red and my head felt compressed, strained even. My nerve endings felt like there were a million explosions going off all throughout my body. Any scent that flooded my nostrils made me feel like I was choking on some sort of poisonous gas.

The few moments that I suffered the unforgiveable curse seemed like years and years of constant, torturous agony and when it finally stopped, I was dripping in a cold sweat and the red hair of Ron flooded into my vision followed by Hermione's bushel of milk chocolate hair. "Shit, Malfoy," Ron said, holding a hand out to me and without even thinking, I took it, letting him pull my still-shaking form up so I could stand.

"You saved me?" I asked and Ron shook his head, glancing at his girlfriend.

"No, Hermione did, but we don't really have time to discuss this, just be thankful that Death Eater didn't throw a killing curse at you," Ron shouted over the roar of the war that never seemed to end.

Before I could even agree with Ron, another Death Eater came up behind him, half way through his killing curse and even if Ronald Weasley was not my favorite person, I wouldn't stand by and watch him die, especially not after he stopped in his own fight to help me. "iPetrificus Totalus!/i" I shouted and the masked man froze up, falling to the ground.

The fight was thinning quickly. More and more Death Eaters and students fell and somehow I had ventured into the building, still fighting off any Voldemort follower who tried to take me down. If I had time to think, I would have been amazed that I was actually still alive, especially with so many people dropping dead around me. It was truly horrific, but they were dying for a noble cause, so long as Voldemort did not turn out victorious.

Mrs. Weasley's cries caught my attention over everything else. "Not my daughter, you bitch!" she cried as a burst of light flew from the tip of her wand. It hit Bellatrix right in the chest and the last thing that I saw before she literally vaporized was a horrified look cross over her face; true, genuine fear shinning in her eyes. It was, to be truthful, a sickening satisfaction, to see the world be rid of her. To know that I was rid of her was even more satisfying.

Now Voldemort just needed to be finished once and for all, but I trusted that Harry would prevail.

The rest of the battle sort of went by into a blur, ending with all of the professors and students still alive, watching Harry and Voldemort's final stand off. I wanted to go to Harry, to help him because it wasn't right that he had to face the Dark Lord by himself. However, we all knew that Harry was the one who had the power to defeat Voldemort. He knew it would be his duty since our first year and that hadn't changed.

A bright strand of neon green and an equally bright blood red flashed through the air between the two wizards, both strands of power fighting for dominance. I was sure I didn't breathe the entire time. It seemed like no one did, as Voldemort would start to gain the upper hand, just to be pushed back by Harry. Voldemort held the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in the world, but it really didn't seem to give him any sort of advantage… Which was strange. Even if Harry was strong enough to defeat that sort of power, it should have been more one sided than it truly was.

I believed in Harry more than I believed in myself and I was still alive. If I was alive, Harry would too and he had the one thing that Voldemort didn't and never would: people who loved and cared for him standing at his side. Voldemort got his followers through fear and intimidation but none of the Death Eaters, with the exception of Bellatrix, actually loved him.

Harry would win. Harry would be all right.

There was a cry, a burst of energy really, from Voldemort, like he was putting his own life force into the killing curse that erupted from the tip of his wand and for just a moment, Harry's counter-curse faltered, pushing back to the point where I believe that perhaps Harry had lost, that Harry would drop to the ground, dead.

"No…" I whispered quietly and I almost didn't believe I said it myself but at that exact moment, there was a cry of pure agony as crimson overtook the jade and the sound of Voldemort's screaming heightened just before there was nothing. Just as Bellatrix had exploded into an explosion of fire and bright colors, Voldemort was there, crumbling from a solid, living person (minus the nose, of course) to nothing but crumbling dust in the wind.

Voldemort screams seemed to linger in the air like a distant echo but Voldemort himself was gone, one hundred percent gone. Harry collapsed to the ground and, once again, I found myself wanting to go to him, but Hermione and Ron ran to him instead. I knew if I went towards them, I would probably be unwelcomed, shooed away or ignored all together so there wasn't really a point in trying, at least, not for the time being.

So instead, while the professors and adults were tending to the wounded and gathering the rest of the people who had died, I went down to the lake and sat in the grass right off of the shore. Most people didn't know that when I got upset or overwhelmed, I went down to the lake to just unwind and relax, to let my mind relax with little worries. It's what I felt I needed right now. I had just, basically, pushed my father out of my life, betrayed Voldemort to do what I felt was right and I didn't regret it but now that the battle was over, I felt more alone than ever. While everyone else was celebrating the victory and mourning the loss of everyone who gave his or her lives today, I was alone, staring at the surface of the lake in front of me, slightly chilled, but not enough to actually care. I simply pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around myself, resting my chin on my knees with tears stinging the corners of my eyes.

"Draco?" I had heard my name called too many times today but this time it wasn't a demanding, harsh tone, but a soft, gentle and almost careful one. I knew it instantly to be Hermione. "Why are you down here all alone?"

"I'm not alone anymore," I pointed out, turning my head a little so I could see the brunette. "Why are you down here instead of with your friends? I… kind of would expect that I would be the last person you would want to be around, especially at a time like this."

"Well, Ron is with his family, mourning their loss and I decided to give them some space. Everyone, only to be expected, is kind of swarming Harry and I noticed that once the fight died down and Voldemort was gone, you were gone too. I wanted to make sure you were all right," she said, coming down to my side before she sat in the grass next to me. "And you don't look fine…"

It took so much of my energy not to start crying right then and there. I had cried so fucking much over the last year, I was so tired of it and disgusted with myself. "I'm not, to be quite honest," I said, looking back at the lake. Why would Hermione care whether I was all right or not? For how horrible I had been to her in the past, I would expect her to ignore me all together. "But why do you care?" I didn't sound rude or cruel, just curious.

"Well, because today, I saw Draco Malfoy for who Draco Malfoy really is. It's something I've only seen a few times, but the Draco I saw today was brave and strong and someone I'd really like to get to know a lot better, if, of course, muggle borns don't bother him," she said and I glanced over at her with surprise and shock clear as day in my eyes. "And because you really look like a man who could just use a good hug…"

That's when one tear rolled down my cheek before I had any hopes of stopping it.

Hermione's eyes filled with sympathy and she reached over slowly. "May I?" she asked I just nodded, not really trusting myself to speak. She pushed the tear off of my cheek and then her arm crossed over my back and pulled me to her smaller frame, pulling me into a rather warm and friendly hug. Hermione was, perhaps, one of the last people I'd ever expected to be hugged by, except for maybe Voldemort, but I was even more surprised to find that I actually felt a lot better when she hugged me.

Before I really knew what was happening, I was bawling. It must have looked pathetic really, but I felt pathetic, small, and weak. I'd stood up to my father and to Voldemort, the war was over but I didn't feel any better. "It's all right to cry, Draco…" Hermione said quietly, one of her hands rubbing soothing, small circles into my back and the other stroking my hair. To anyone who might have observed this, they might have thought we were in love, but all Hermione was currently was a comfort, almost like a mother or an older sister, though I wasn't really sure if Hermione was younger or older than I was.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with you being a muggle born…" I whispered into her shoulder. Somehow my head had fallen down onto the shoulder of her left arm and my tears were running down into her sweater. "I'm sorry," I admitted to her. "I'm sorry for how horribly I've treated you. In truth… your bravery and willingness to die for Harry and for what is right is something I admire more than I've ever admired anything else. It's what I've only wished I could be and I'm sorry…"

"Well…" she started, her fingers lazily playing with my horribly messy hair. For once I didn't care how it looked. "I never expected to hear something like that come from you… but I understand why you would act the way you did. You… were just trying to please your father and I'm so sorry he wouldn't let you be yourself… But I think you've decided that you want to be your own person. Your actions today have proven that you are not that mean, stuck up little boy…"

"But now that I've let go… Now that I've refused my father, I have nothing," I said so quietly that I wondered if I even spoke out loud or if it was just a thought.

"That isn't entirely true," she whispered back. "You still have your mother. She loves you very much. I've seen that and she didn't really have a choice in being a Death Eater, just like you… You also have friends."

I couldn't really help but snort. "What friends?" I asked. Sure, through school I had Crab and Goyle but they weren't really quality friends, they were just the boys who would put up with my bullshit. And now one of them was dead…

"Well, me, for starters. I told you already, the man I saw today is someone I would love to get to know," she said and I honestly couldn't believe my ears. "I'm sure that Ronald and Harry will feel the same about you." My heart skipped a few beats. "In fact, I'm sure a lot of people will feel the same way I do. You stood up in front of the entire school and you chose what was right, not what was safe. People will recognize that, I assure you. So you may not have a relationship with your father anymore. It'll be hard to get used to, I know, but you really are better off… Draco, you're free to live iyour/i life, and you will always have friends, I promise you."

Finally, I pulled my head up so I could look at her. I wiped my eyes gently, smiling a real smile for the first time in years, not a smirk or a condescending grin, just a real, genuine smile. "You're the last person I ever expected to be nice to me, let alone, wanting to be my friend," I told her.

"Perhaps," she said. "But I'm not the only one." She turned to look up the small incline leading down to the lake and Harry Potter stood there, looking down at us. "Hello Harry," Hermione called. "Sorry I wandered off. I wanted to make sure Draco was all right."

Harry smiled a little and walked down to us. "Oh, it's no problem, really. In fact, I came down to do the same, and to also peal myself away from everyone else," he said. "But I see you two have already gotten quite close."

"Yes, well, don't tell Ron just yet," Hermione said with a quiet laugh. It was still too soon after the end of a war to be joyous and carefree.

"No worries," Harry said quietly and then there was a long sort of pause but I really wasn't sure if it was awkward or not. "Actually, Hermione, do you mind giving Draco and I a moment alone? Ron's family is still, obviously, mourning, but I think Ron would like for you to be there…"

"Of course…" Hermione muttered quietly and she pulled away from me all together, walking up the hill with what looked like a slight limp and when she reached the castle, Harry took her seat next to me.

We sat in silence for a long while, staring out at the lake but eventually Harry turned to look at me. His glasses were cracked but he didn't really seem to care. "What made you stay, Draco?" he asked me quietly and I looked him in the eye for a moment, trying to read his emotions and I could tell that he was doing the same.

"You said it yourself, Harry, back in the Room of Requirement… I didn't tell Bellatrix that it was you back at Malfoy Manner," I said. "For a reason," I added. "Because you were right. I knew it was you from the moment you were dragged in and I didn't tell Bellatrix because I knew if she called Voldemort, you would have been murdered right in front of me and I couldn't…" I choked up a little and found my fingers digging into the dirt at my hips. "I couldn't let him murder you, especially if I had to stand there and watch…"

"Why not?" Harry asked, as if that was a legitimate question.

"Why not? Harry, that might, truly, be the dumbest thing you have ever asked me…" I said and he kind of smirked at me. "You were the only one who could defeat him and he needed to be stopped…"

"But that wasn't, really, the reason you wouldn't tell Bellatrix… and why you weren't really trying to harm me in the Room of Requirement," he said and I knew he was right but I wasn't really sure what he was expecting me to tell him. "It was something more than that. I know because it was the same feeling I had when I went back to save you from that fire… Because I icouldn't/i let you die, especially when I could do something to stop your death."

I looked Harry in the eye for a moment, searching for something, anything that would give me some sort of clue on what he was trying to get at but I couldn't really, so I glanced away. "You didn't have to save me…" I said softly.

"But I did," he corrected.

There was a short silence again, where we both settled into staring at the lake, but I just couldn't take the silence anymore. It was almost maddening really. "What exactly do you expect to hear from me, Harry? That secretly I never hated you? That secretly I actually wanted to be a positive part of your life? That I wanted to be your friend? Because if that is what you wanted to hear, then… consider yourself up to date, because… that's all true," I told him and out of the corner of my eye, I could see him smiling.

"Me too, Draco…" Harry said quietly. "It was quite an effort to continuously hate you when it would have been so much better to just be friends, but our circumstances didn't allow it before…" He looked at me again. "But is that all?"

"W-why would there be anything more…?" I asked cautiously, careful not to look him in the face for fear of him being able to read me easier than I was able to read him.

"Because I felt more," he said. "When you wrapped your arms around me when I pulled you onto my broom a few hours ago. It wasn't just you holding onto me to keep from falling off and don't try to deny it, because I know that would just be a bunch of rubbish. You used to be an amazing liar, Draco Malfoy, but now? Now I think your down right awful at it."

"That… may be true," I admitted, sighing deeply.

"So? You gonna open up and tell me?" he asked. Damn he was persistent. I realized, unless another battle broke out, I probably was not going to get out of this. Maybe I could fake being sick or something. No… that was just down right pathetic, really.

"I think I've opened up quite a lot in the last few hours, Harry, don't push me to a breaking point," I said and he just rolled his eyes, playfully pushing me like we had been closer than brothers for forever.

"Seriously, Draco…" he said and I sighed, pulling my wand out slowly.

"Harry, I have to show you for you to truly understand, all right?" I said quietly and I looked over at the lake again, slowly swishing my wand through the air. "The first time I saw this, I didn't believe it and for the longest time I tried to deny it, but now that I'm sitting here with you, after fighting in the biggest war the Wizarding World has ever known, on your side, I can't, really, deny it any longer…"

"Draco what—"

"iExpecto Patronum,/i" I practically whispered to my wand and a bright blue-almost-white light erupted from the tip of my wand and swirled above the ground between the lake and us. Within seconds, the shapeless light formed into a large, magnificent and proud stag, exactly like Harry's Patronus. "Quite a long while ago, a few dementors were brought to Malfoy Manner. They took a special interest in me because I was so miserable living the life of a Death Eater and even more so when Voldemort decided he didn't favor me much because I didn't kill Dumbledore… I had to cast a Patronus charm just to keep the dementors from feeding off of me and it was a stag from the very beginning."

"But… My Patronus is the stag…" Harry said quietly and his eyes were just about as round as his glasses as the glowing stag approached us, leaning down to rub his nose against Harry's shoulder, as if to say he was welcomed. "Does a matching Patronus mean…?"

"It does… and I didn't want to believe it but a few hours ago, it was concreted in my mind that there would never be anyone else…" I told him.

Harry reached up as if to pet the stag, but he was looking at me the whole time. "So… Draco, are you…?"

"Yes…" I whispered, shaking a little now. It was amazing that the Patronus was still there because my concentration was hazy. "And I know that it may only be one sided. Just because my Patronus matches yours doesn't mean that you have to return my feelings… I learned how to cast this after you, so mine molded to match yours, not the other way around. I've been cruel and mean to you ever since we met and I completely understand that you may not want the same things I do, you may not have the same desires that I do and I—"

I didn't have much time to finish what I was saying because the distance between Harry and myself closed completely and his arms wrapped around me, pulling me to him as our lips meshed together in what seemed like perfect unison. It was truly shocking how perfectly not only our lips, but our bodies fit together, like two halves of a broken wand and I moaned, melting into the kiss as my Patronus faded and my arms wrapped around Harry, leaving my mother's wand forgotten in the grass.

The kiss was honestly more than I really expected. Everyone talked about a spark when you kissed the person you were meant to be with but this was more than a spark, it was the most amazing feeling I'd ever experienced and when his tongue entered my mouth, I didn't stop it. I tasted him and I moaned even louder, letting him dominate me. My drive to win, to dominate him at everything faded with this kiss and I let him kiss me until we just couldn't anymore.

The need for air got the better of us eventually and our kiss broke but we didn't move away from one another. "What about… Ginny?" I panted. I knew they had kind of been an item.

"Ginny was great but she wasn't… she wasn't right and I think we both understand that our relationship will never be more than friendship. She is… like my sister, to be honest but you? Well, I'd be lying if I told you I haven't thought about this at least once or twice… Or more than that. I couldn't understand why I felt so strongly about you when we were supposed to hate each other but now I understand completely and I'm ready to say that…" He stopped for a moment.

"That what, Harry?" I asked quietly and he looked me in the eye again. Now though, I could see nothing but happiness in his deep green eyes, despite the agony of the aftermath of war around us.

"That I love you, Draco Malfoy," he said quietly, his forehead resting against mine.

"I…" Tears flooded my vision but for the first time in my life they were tears of happiness. I never knew they really existed. "I love you, too…"

Harry smiled brightly and for a while we just held onto each other, comfortable in the silence that had fallen between us because now the air was light and full of new life instead of think and hanging with dread. Eventually though, I could hear Ron and Hermione arguing. Something about Ron wanting to come down and know what was going on and Hermione telling him to just give us some space, but the voices were getting louder, so Ron must have been winning the argument for once.

"Come on," Harry said quietly into my ear. "We've got some explaining to do."

"If we must, Potter," I muttered back, slowly pocketing my mother's wand and standing with my new… boyfriend. It was truly a strange thing, to think of Harry Potter as my boyfriend, but he was now and I couldn't have been happier about that. For once I felt whole and I cold smile with the happiness that everyone else always seemed to have while my life was left in the shadows of my father and of Voldemort.

Harry and I joined Ron and Hermione and before Ron could even open his mouth to speak, Harry took my hand. "We'll explain everything, all right Ron? For now, let's just go join the others." I could see my mother standing by the castle. "It'd be easier to explain once instead of twenty times," Harry added and Ron glanced at our intertwined hands before he nodded.

"All right, come along then," he said as we walked towards the castle together. Who would have ever though that I would be walking hand in hand with Harry Potter with his best friends Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley beside us?


End file.
